Our server’s hard drive crashed, losing all it’s data (months worth of work). One minute it was working fine, and the next, it was completely empty. No formatting or anything. It just all disappeared without explanation.

“Well, no problem. We made a backup a couple days ago!”

So we loaded the backup drive. Lo and behold, half the files were missing on it as well!

In desperation, I pulled up google and looked up disk recovery software. 3 hours later, in the midst of the plethora of useless junk out there I found a gem called “File Scavenger“. Within minutes, it somehow scanned the entire *empty*, *un-recoverable* hard drive and managed to extract every single file that had existed on it before. To top it off, it even found a bunch of long-forgotten, deleted files as well!

Needless to say, we learned our lesson. We immediately proceeded to the nearest Fry’s Electronics. $500 later, we had all the equipment needed to set up a redundant RAID data backup system and were back in business. Now we have two different 250 gig Serial ATA drives set up in a RAID 1 (mirrored) configuration. If one of the drives fails (or even simply becomes unplugged from it’s cable), all the data will still be accessible by the network users. Awesome.

To top it off, we also have a third 250 gig drive. But this one is external. So we can make a mirror image of our data and take it home every night just in case our office burns down or the server gets stolen or something.

Here at my new apartment complex, all utilities are included in the rent. Water, trash, and yes… even electricity. And for this, they charge a premium.

However, it seems that the management has figured out a way to pull a fast one on it’s residents. You see, they control the gi-normous heat pump system and air conditioning system in the center of the complex. And when they deem that the temperature outside is cold enough, they’ll cut off the air conditioning. For everyone.

Now, this is all fine and dandy assuming you like sleeping in a 75-80 degree room. But I don’t. I like sleeping in a 68-70 degree room. Call me spoiled. But I know how I sleep best, and I’m paying for a climate controlled environment, dang it.

Ok. So I finally got all these boxes unpacked and items put in the right places. And today, I finished setting up my home theater system and hung all my pictures. Try hanging speakers on a concrete wall. Very tricky!

Let’s just say it involved a masonry drill bit…

I’ll try and take some pictures of everything this evening or tomorrow and I’ll post them up on here.

On a side note, I’m starting to get some of the area explored around my apartment. It’s amazing! There’s everything from fast food joints and a movie theater, to wal-mart and home depot less than a mile away. Directly across the road from my apartment building, there’s a mexican restaurant where the George Bush once ate at.

Last night I drove to the big movie theater about 5 miles away and watched Chicken Little in full 3D with the glasses and everything. It was really neat because it wasn’t the standard red/blue, cheapo, headache-inducing 3D movie. They used clear glasses. Must have something to do with polarized light filters or something. But yeah. Anyways.

It’s 1:15 AM, and as I write this, I am sitting on my couch in my new apartment. In the small space of time consisting of Sunday and Monday, I have managed to pack up all my belongings and travel almost 1,200 miles. To top it off, I also have unloaded the entire uhaul truck (with help from a few friends) into my apartment on the fourth floor. Yes. We even carried my gi-normous couch up four flights of stairs.

My back is not too happy right now.

I was hoping that I would be able to connect to the internet wirelessly here, bumming off of some neighbors or what not. Unfortunately, the apartment walls and ceilings consist entirely of concrete, a foot thick, crammed full with who knows how much re-bar. Suffice to say, just about any feasible signals are blocked. Yes, including my cell phone. If I stand in the middle of my apartment complex my phone has zero bars. Stupid thing.

Anyways, so I went out on my balcony with my trusty Linksys WRT54G wireless router (with upgraded firmware), and attempted to scour the landscape for a usable signal outside of the complex. I found a couple of weak signals, including one from a t-mobile hot spot at a starbucks a number of blocks away.

The signal was very faint, so I increased the power on the router to 200mw. Still not quite usable.

Using duct tape and a piece of plastic from a modular shelving unit, I proceeded to create a makeshift platform that stretched out past my balcony and away from the concrete walls by a foot or so. I then proceeded to place the wireless router out on the platform, now hanging precariously four stories above the ground.

Success!

So. Yeah. I’m surfing the web and writing in my journal using a starbucks far away. I’m not sure why, but this concept makes me humourously pleased. Too bad I have to hide my duct taped contraption from the sight of the road, come day time. Somehow I don’t think the apartment manager would find it to be parallel with the current decorum.

More will be written later… Probably after a couple of days once I start getting settled in.